Jules Verne's Captain Hatteras - Part 2: Ice Desert

Chapter 1 - The Inventory

Captain Hatteras's wish to offer England, his country, the glory of discovering the Earth's boreal pole was a bold plan. This brave sailor had done everything humanly possible. After fighting for nine months against the currents, the storms, after passing through mountains of ice and ice, after facing the frosts of an unprecedented winter in the hyperborean regions, after summing up in his expedition the work of his predecessors, he controlled and rebuilt, if we can say it like this, the history of the polar discoveries, after reaching the known seas with the ship "Forward", at last, after halfway through his task, saw his grandiose plans thwarted. The betrayal or rather his crew's discouraging consumed of so many trials, the criminal madness of some intriguers, the fact that they had abandoned him in such a terrible situation: out of eighteen men aboard the ship, only four remained, abandoned, without supplies, without a ship, at more than two thousand five hundreds of miles from their country!

The explosion of the ship "Forward", which had taken place right in front of them, had also hijacked their last means of survival.

However, Hatteras's courage didn't fade in the face of this terrible catastrophe! The remaining comrades were the best in the entire crew, true heroes. He called on Clawbonny's energy and science, Bell and Johnson's loyalty and his own faith in the expedition that he undertook. He had even dared to speak of hope in such a desperate situation; he had been listened to by his brave comrades, and he spoke to the past of such determined men about their courage in the future.

The doctor, in the captain's hopeful words, wanted to know exactly where they were and, leaving his comrades five hundred paces from the ship, headed for the scene of the catastrophe. From "Forward", from this carefully built ship, from this dear ship, there was nothing left; mixed ice, shapeless remains, blackened, burned, bent iron bars, pieces of cable still burning like artillery, and in the distance, a few spirals of smoke crawling here and there over the ice-fields were evidence of the violent explosion. The cannon, thrown a few rods away, lay on a glacier that looked like an affect. The ground was strewn with debris of all kinds within a radius of a hundred poles; the ship's keel groaned under a pile of ice; the icebergs, largely melted by the heat of the fire, had already regained their granite hardness.

The doctor thought then of his devastated cabin, of his lost collections, of his precious destroyed instruments, of his torn books, turned to ashes. So many destroyed wonders! He contemplated with tears his eyes this immense disaster, thinking not of the future, but of this irreparable misfortune that had struck him directly. Johnson joins him shortly; the face of the old sailor bore the marks of the last sufferings endured; he had been forced to fight his revolted comrades, defending the ship in his care.

The doctor held out a hand, which the crew chief shook sadly.

Clawbonny: What will become of us, friend?

Johnson: Who knows?

Clawbonny: Before anything else, let's not despair and be men!

Johnson: Yes, Mr Clawbonny, you're right; during the great disaster big decisions must be taken; we're at a great difficulty; let's hope that we will escape safely!

Clawbonny: The poor ship! I was attached to it; I loved it like how you'd love your own house, a home where you spent your entire life, and there wasn't a piece of it left!

Johnson: Who could have thought that this bunch of beams and planks would be so dear to us!

Clawbonny: What happened to the boat? Didn't it escape the explosion?

Johnson: Yes, Mr Clawbonny, Shandon and the crew, who abandoned us, took it with them!

Clawbonny: And the canoe?